Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 04/15/2003
Dubbed: English
Distributor/Studio: Alpha Video
Often compared to
Reefer Madness, this low-budget
exploitation melodrama features
Lois January as
Jane Bradford, a small-town coffee-shop waitress falling in love with smooth-talking city hoodlum
Nick Brogan (
Noel Madison), who gets her hooked on cocaine. While
Jane goes from pretty ingénue to a hardened nightclub habitue known as
Lil, her brother
Eddie (
Dean Benton), a waiter in a drive-in restaurant, is persuaded by co-worker
Fanny (
Sheila Manners) to enjoy a night on the town. They both become addicts and
Fanny is reduced to walking the streets for money. Pregnant and rejected by the hopped-up
Eddie, she finally kills herself.
Nick, meanwhile, attempts to seduce
Dorothy Farley (
Lois Lindsay), a bleach-blonde debutante, but the girl is saved in the nick of time by
Jane/
Lil, who shoots and kills their tormentor. The police arrive to arrest not only
Jane but also the mysterious
Mr. Big, who turns out to be
Dorothy's father (
Frank Shannon).
Cocaine Fiends also features well-known character actress
Fay Holden ("Hasn't he told you yet? Those headache powders are dope!"), who hides behind her original stage moniker of
Gaby Fay, and a full-length floor show that includes gawky singer
Nona Lee performing
"All I Want Is You." The film was a remake of
Willis Kent's silent
The Pace That Kills (1928), footage from which is used throughout.
~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
"I've gotta have dope! I'm a hop head! I'd sell my soul for just one shot!"
Dean Benton cries in
Cocaine Fiends. Yes, the dialogue is corny but
Benton and the rest of the cast perform with a sincerity completely lacking in
Reefer Madness, the anti-dope
melodrama with which the film is always compared. Despite the tacky surroundings, there are actually several well-known players involved, including
Noel Madison,
Sheila Manners (aka
Sheila Bromley), and
Lois January, all of whom were borrowed from
Warner Bros. Yet
Cocaine Fiends, or, as it was originally titled,
The Pace That Kills, remains a typical
exploitation film complete with a lengthy "square-up" (an introductory statement that served to explain why such an unseemly topic was both necessary and urgent) and the inclusion of a dreadful variety show for no other reason than to stretch the running time. The only ingredient missing, and presumably much to the dismay of the paying customers, is "spectacle." You never actually see anyone snort cocaine and there is none of the gratuitous sexual titillation that is so much a part of the genre in general and the more famous (or should that be "infamous"?)
Reefer Madness.
~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
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